Witness in Drexel Park attack case testifies she heard assault

Friday

Jul 19, 2013 at 12:34 PMJul 19, 2013 at 12:39 PM

By Dennis PelhamDaily Telegram Staff Writer

Tearful testimony from a 23-year-old woman convicted of playing a part in a near-fatal assault ended the second day of a trial Thursday in Lenawee County Circuit Court for the alleged leader in the attack.

James Graham Cooper Jr., 47, faces conspiracy to commit murder, torture and assault charges in the Dec. 30 incident at a home in Drexel Park, just east of Adrian in Madison Township.

Cooper, of Manitou Beach, allegedly broke into a 53-year-old man’s home and choked, beat, stabbed and set him on fire. Cooper was allegedly reacting to statements the victim’s daughter made during a drug party at a home in Adrian where Cooper smoked crack cocaine.

The daughter, Jessica Tabernero, was having a seizure or drug overdose reaction when she began saying her father had been raping her, said witness Jessica Lynn Miller. She was brought into court in chains and a jail uniform to testify as agreed last month in a plea bargain to a reduced assault charge.

Miller said Cooper and several others were using crack cocaine, marijuana and alcohol on Dec. 29 at a house on Frank Street in Adrian where Miller was staying at the time.

Cooper and his wife went into a bedroom to have sex with Tabernero, said Miller. Shortly after Tabernero, 23, came out of the bedroom, Miller said, she began having seizure-like symptoms and talking about being afraid to return to her father’s home.

Cooper learned what Tabernero was saying and asked where her father lived, said Miller, breaking into tears.

Miller said she did not know what time it was when Cooper left with an address Tabernero wrote on a piece of paper.

“I’d been up for a few days at that point so I was a little bit blurry,” Miller said.

A short time later, Miller said, she answered a call from Cooper on Tabernero’s cellphone.

“He told me to wake her (Tabernero) up because it was a life or death situation,” Miller said. While the phone was on speaker mode, she said, she heard Cooper saying, “This is what it sounds like with my hands around his throat.’ ”

Miller said she recognized the voice of Tabernero’s father.

“He just sounded scared,” Miller said. The victim then spoke to her on the phone, Miller said, telling her, “I swear I would never do that to my daughter.”

“What did you think was going to happen?” asked Scott Baker, assistant Lenawee County prosecutor.

“I thought he was going to kill him,” Miller answered.

Miller also told the jury that Cooper had assaulted her once in the past, beating her unconscious.

“He definitely hit me quite a few times,” she said.

“Did you have any doubts about what he (Cooper) was capable of?” Baker asked.

“No,” she said.

Cooper was arrested Jan. 3 after the victim identified him from a photo lineup shown to him in his hospital room, said Detective LuAnn Bearden of the Lenawee County Sheriff’s Department.

The victim had undergone brain surgery and was on medication for pain from a broken arm, head injuries, a finger that was nearly cut off and severe burns on his neck, she said. But he was alert enough to talk about the assault, Bearden said.

When she showed him photographs of six men, Bearden said, “He instantly pointed at Mr. Cooper and said, ‘That’s the man who did it.’ ”

Witnesses are to be called to support an alibi defense declared by Cooper after the prosecution completes its case, possibly today.